Grizzled Ohio rockers finally make their Who album

Ever since Guided By Voices became the toasts of indie rock with their
masterwork, Bee Thousand, in 1994, Frontman Robert Pollard has been
replicating that album's short-songs, cruddy-production formula to the
point that his songwriting quirks have curdled into mannered cliches.
Perhaps sensing that even his loyalists have grown tired of everything
coming out half-baked and low-fi, Pollard has created an album of fully
formed compositions produced in pristine digital sound by former Cars
leader Ric Ocasek. It's all a bit startling at first - like hearing the
band with 3-D glasses on - but Ocasek's polished power boost serves GBV
well. The arena-rock riffs on "Teenage FBI" and "In Stitches" leap out
at you, and the weepy strings on "Hold On Hope" and "Dragons Awake" work
in a Forever Changes kind of way. Longtime fans may bristle at GBV's
new slick tricks, but Do The Collapse is hardly a concession to
commercialism. Rather, it sounds like the GBV record that
unreconstructed classic-rock fan Pollard has always wanted to make: his
very own Who Are You.